The Lift hands-on preview — Lightbulbs, with a side of existentialism

It’s time to head to work!  They call me a “Spare Keeper,” but I don’t take offense, as I’m serving a very important role.  I fix things.  What things?  Whatever needs fixing!  I hop on the elevator and sure enough, before I even get to work, there’s something broken.  First, it’s a simple light bulb that goes out, but I’m ready.  Opening the hinged cover, I unscrew the bulb, replacing it with one I found conveniently stashed inside a nearby (and very internally well-lit) bench.  Closing the latch, the elevator lurches back into service, giving me my morning briefing about how I have purpose because I fix things, and those things are what bring me purpose.  Soon enough, I get a bit more purpose as I have to fix a basic relay panel to get things moving again.  Back in service for the moment…no wait, now that breaker box on the wall has tripped.  They sure are lucky to have me, yes indeed. They tell me I’m part of something special – I'm part of current cycle 577.  I matter around here because they’d all be in the dark without me.  I work for The Bureau at the Research Institute Station - I take care of them, and they take care of me!  So well, in fact, that they want to keep me around should something unthinkable happen to the Primary Keeper.  Once I finish up my training, it’s into the freezer I go so I can be around if something goes wrong.  What are the odds of that happening, anyway?

Recently, I got the chance to check out The Lift, a puzzle / head scratcher from newcomer Fantastic Signals (and awesome publisher tinyBuild), a studio based out of Latvia and Serbia composed of industry veterans working on such games as Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Pathologic 2. If there is a pair of more wildly divergent experiences than those two, I’m not sure what it’d be, but it does give some insight into the minds of the team.  This is going to be an odd one. 

The Lift (we call em Elevators here in the US) tells the story of…well, your name doesn’t actually matter much.  Your job is to fix things, and the Bureau needs you around like an extra set of batteries.  Into the hibernation pod you go, but something has gone wrong.  You awake far later than intended, having to fix your pod to even get out of it.  I check my BUG, the Bureau Utility Gadget that keeps track of my to-do list, for some options.  It turns out, my training doesn’t quite cover this.  As I step out of my pod, still clutching the fun little Operator figure I picked up before whatever all this happened, I see that there might just be a little more to fix than I can handle.  Mushroom-like strands punch up through the flooring, strange roots climb the walls and punch through to the ceiling, the room is a disorganized disarray of scattered boxes and debris, and worst of all, there are lights flickering or out EVERYWHERE – it’s a nightmare.  The BUG offers the less-than-helpful “find a way out” directive. I’m not normally one to question the company, but I think this whole situation might be untenable.  

At its core, The Lift is a single-player, story-driven, supernatural handyman simulator.  That’s how the team describes it, and frankly, they’re underselling it.  If you enjoy cozy repair games like House Flipper, Assemble With Care, or Little Repair Shop, but also enjoy existential dread in the likes of Barotrauma, The Stanley Parable, The Talos Principle, and yes – Pathologic 2, with a light dusting of the dark humor of the Portal series, Oddworld, Cult of the Lamb, and the Fallout series, then boy do I have a game for you.  

The massive research complex you find yourself stuck in is a sort of retrofuturistic oddity that clearly has had something otherworldly happen to it while you slept away years in your pod.  Clearly, there was more going on at work than you were privy to as the local B-tier handyman.  I don’t want to ruin too much of the story, which is why the video above cuts off right about the time it gets very weird – The Lift is a game you’ll want to experience for yourself.  

Much of what makes the game so compelling is that it’s very interactive.  Opening a desk to find a…well, it’s another spare lightbulb, of course, is going to require a quick repair.  Using my trusty screwdriver, I reinstalled a screw in the side lever.  That interactivity is a click to drop the screw in place, then a twist of the screw and a pull on the drawer – something that permeates every bit of the game thus far.  If you want to accomplish a repair that means opening a hatch, unscrewing a panel, pulling on a lever, replacing a relay or a cable, using a glue gun jerry-rigged with tape, and more.  Sometimes you’re just fixing busted furniture.  Escape is best accomplished with renovations, and that means a whole lot of interaction.  Sometimes it’s as simple as getting a wire in the right spot, but as the game progresses, it means using real-world mechanical and electrical engineering concepts to operate increasingly-complex equipment.  There are some real head-scratchers in here, and I’m all for it.  

Obviously, what I got to play is just a taste of what lies ahead, but each area feels like a massive interconnected renovation in motion that seems sparse and disparate, but sometimes comes together to form a unified challenge.  It’ll be interesting to see how far that extends in the final equation. One thing is certain – I already know that The Lift is going to be pure addiction.  I know this because, after just a few hours, I realized that I was actively changing lightbulbs when I didn’t need to.  I’d backtrack, find the tube light needed to light up a flickering section of hallway that serves no purpose other than conveyance to the next area, but I’m a handyman, and things need doing, so I’m doing em.  

The Lift is coming to PC at some point in 2026, with console versions to follow.  You can stay locked in right here at GamingTrend.com for everything on this title, as well as all the other fantastic upcoming games in what is already shaping up to be an awesome release year.  Me?  I just saw another light flicker, so I have work to do…